The Bishop of Mannar has written a letter to the Apostolic Nuncio, after one of Sri Lanka’s largest churches suffered a grenade attack last week.

According to the Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph of the Mannar Diocese, in the north of Sri Lanka, the church "had been desecrated by innocent blood being shed by unjust aggressors.”

One woman was killed and around 40 injured after a grenade was thrown, by the navy according to eyewitnesses, into the Our Lady of Victory of Church in Pesalai in Mannar, where around 200 people had been sheltering.

The church was the second place of worship to be hit after shots were fired at a Buddhist Shrine in Somawathi earlier in the week.

A monk from the shrine denied a government statement accusing the Tamil Tiger rebels of the attack.

Mahamune Sri Sumangala told the BBC “All through the conflict we never had any trouble from the Tigers. There are so many groups around in the area

. It is difficult to say who is responsible.”.

Pastor Ebenezer from Tamil Church London expressed concern at what he described as a new phenomenon of attacking places of worship.

He added that “If the Navy is responsible it is very worrying. Government forces are supposed to protect, not slaughter.”

He appealed to both the Tamil Tigers and the Government to “get to the negotiating table immediately with serious intentions and end the violence.”

In the past week alone over 100 people have been killed in Sri Lanka's as-yet-undeclared war.